Category: Guest Posts
The recent referendum on the whether or not Britain should leave the EU has captured the imagination of those with an interest in public affairs. It is being cited as a part of a pattern of international events, including the rise of Donald Trump in United States, and the failure of the Liberal Coalition to secure an election night majority in Australia.
No matter what happens next, last week’s stunning “LEAVE” vote on Brexit has permanently disrupted the status quo ante. Both the Conservative and Labour parties are facing major leadership changes; conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned, and Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has been besieged by his shadow cabinet for his tepid support of the REMAIN option.
I’ve always thought democracy is a pretty good sort of system. Not perfect, of course, but as Winston Churchill said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
On the back of last month's budget, opposition politicians, academics and other advocates once again expressed outrage at the incidence of child poverty. The culprits routinely blamed are unemployment, high housing costs and insufficient benefit payments. But another factor is constantly overlooked - the rapid change in family structure.
Much of this year’s US presidential election coverage has focused on the unexpected success of Donald Trump to win the Republican Party nomination. However, pundits also got it wrong on the Democratic side of the ticket...
In some ways it was indeed a good Budget. Government spending is under reasonably tight control, with the ratio of government spending to GDP continuing to edge gradually lower from the levels it reached in the immediate aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes and the global financial crisis.
The papakāinga provisions should apply to all properties, or they should not apply at all. One’s connection to land and environmental effects are, after all, not defined by race. Many of us more recent immigrants also have an ancestral connection with our land, or would like to create a legacy property for future generations. Why can't they have the same rights as Maori?
The Tribunal has embarked on round two of its hearings concerning a variety of claims relating to New Zealand’s fresh water resources. The nature of the claims are discussed in exhausting detail in the Tribunal’s first report made in 2012.
A 7-2 vote this week by the Masterton District Council to appoint representatives from two Wairarapa iwi to have voting rights on its standing committees is the latest step in a long march towards tribalising local government in New Zealand.
In 2010 the eight Auckland councils were amalgamated into one. I’m not sure why and my early prognosis gave the experiment five years before failing. This was based on the unwieldy nature of the proposed council – multiple layers of management were bound to complicate and slow down decision-making and further remove policy-makers from the places and people for whom they are actually making policy.
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